One thing I wonder about Chigurgh: Is he, as the sheriff seems to think, a new type of villain who heralds a new world of evil, or is he just (!) an extreme example of the type of villain the earth has known for centuries, ie a mafia-type criminal who is also a psychopath?

I haven't seen the film.

The scene hadn't attracted my attention in this way from the paper version.

Are we talking about the book or the movie? In the coin-flip scene at the gas station (in the book) it may be a mistake to assume that Chigurh was willing to honor the results of the heads/tails. He plays God, kills whom he pleases when it suits his purposes. I don't think he would have killed that guy even if he lost the coin toss.

For the record, it wasn't funny or famous in the book. Chigurh does the coin toss with Moss' wife. She loses. But he was gonna kill her anyway and I think said as much (I no longer have a copy of the book.)..... something to the effect that he wanted her to have a glimmer of hope before she died.

Here is some kind of evil, satanic creature who kills at will, as I said plays God.... he makes the life/death decisions, calls the shots entirely himself, but teases his victims with a coin-toss. As he teases his victims, the author is teasing his readers.

The coin-flip assumes you have a chance. You don't. It's fatalism purified. You live, you die. It ain't your call.

In the coin-flip scene at the gas station (in the book) it may be a mistake to assume that Chigurh was willing to honor the results of the heads/tails. He plays God, kills whom he pleases when it suits his purposes. I don't think he would have killed that guy even if he lost the coin toss.

I hadn't considered this possibility.I took what he said at face value, I thought the game he was playing was that he did exactly what he said, and wouldn't waste words on asking the potential victim to toss a coin if he wasn't going to act on it.

Quote:

Chigurh does the coin toss with Moss' wife. She loses. But he was gonna kill her anyway and I think said as much (I no longer have a copy of the book.)..... something to the effect that he wanted her to have a glimmer of hope before she died

Yes, he did tell Moss he would kill his wife if he didn't do what Chigurh wanted. So I agree that he had come to kill her, and the tossing of the coin made no sense here.

It's possible that McCarthy is so focused on fatalism that he wants to pile on, which is to say that he gives us fatalism in layers. By this I mean: when you are in the presence of Anton Chigurh your fate is no longer in your hands-- if you continue to live and breathe it certainly has nothing to with your own actions, choices etc. To compound your impotence Mr. Chigurh will ask you to choose heads or tails. So there is a double-whammy, a double layer of personal humiliation in which you are but an insect beneath a massive boot-heel. You can win the coin toss.... whoopee!... but you're still dead.

Is personal choice ever something viable? Yes! Moss in the first chapter decides to take the money. If he turns the money over to the Sheriff-- what then? There must be more crucial personal choices..... there must be hundreds of examples that illustrate one's free will--help me out.

One thing I wonder about Chigurgh: Is he, as the sheriff seems to think, a new type of villain who heralds a new world of evil, or is he just (!) an extreme example of the type of villain the earth has known for centuries, ie a mafia-type criminal who is also a psychopath?

I haven't seen the film.

The scene hadn't attracted my attention in this way from the paper version.

Any comments anyone?

Yeah - I've got a comment - that is to say that I didn't find that scene funny. It was scary - I thought he was going to kill the gas station attendant.

There are other parts in the book that are funny - these conversations Moss has with people - the 15 year old girl he picks up, for instance.

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